Marcel JOUHANDEAU proclaims his admiration for Charles de GAULLE.

Marcel JOUHANDEAU (1888.1979)

Autograph manuscript signed – General de Gaulle.

Three in-12° pages on squared paper foliated in grease pencil.

Binder holes in margin.

No place. January 1972.

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"A stranger to politics, distant by nature from anything military, and a prisoner, moreover, of a climate unfavorable to his generous initiative, I was only won over by General de Gaulle late in life, but with a sympathy all the more ardent as it implied a profound remorse .

 Great was my joy one day to find my name under his pen, in a letter addressed to Mr. Boisdeffre. I wrote to him myself at a time when his difficulties, his anxieties, his solitude prevented me from sleeping.

When people read my memoirs under the occupation after my death, they will better understand my attitude, the reasons for which I give.

Today, how could we not be proud to have been the contemporary of a man who, by saving his country, gave the world an exceptional example.

His end recalls that of the heroes of Greece and Rome. I am thinking in particular of one of the figures who most magnificently honors our species, Scipio Africanus, a victim like General de Gaulle of the ingratitude characteristic of republics. Marcel Jouhandeau.

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We enclose Jouhandeau's cover letter to Michel Cazenave, to whom the manuscript was intended for publication at L'Herne: "It is with violence to my discretion that I send you, at your request, this tribute to General de Gaulle. May it not disappoint you too much?